A Snapshot at a Time
by Mirae-no-sekai
Summary: On best friends and slamming face-first into love, Axel knows a lot: Roxas is quite the insightful guide after all. And well, what type of friend would he be if he didn't help him with this new girl?


1) Ill

As soon as Roxas entered the room in a mess of possibly party-induced blushing and tangles of blabbering, Axel knew that all the interesting events just _had to happen_ in those rare moments when he fell ill.

2) Name

This time, it happened to be another girl. How had Roxas managed to get it without Axel's expert aid with hooking them up remained a mystery for now – same as the small details such as her name for one.

3) Unusual

Nevertheless, once the secret sea-salt-ice-cream panacea for the unusual behavior had taken effect, this Naminé girl didn't sound _that_ bad…

4) Sleuth

Getting a semi-sad, semi-ironic Roxas did though – _why_ did he pick the only girl in the whole event who didn't attend either of their classes? But well, Axel was a master sleuth…

5) Fly

And frankly, he didn't know how to deal with a jittery best friend – although then the usual sarcastic comments began to fly in Axel's general direction again, his mission got easier.

6) Wisp

In a relative way – they ended up tracking the wisp of a girl all the way to an art academy after she just appeared out of thin air at the college doors.

7) Credentials

"Would you mind showing us any credentials or student documents before entering?"

_Roxas better remember all those sneaking-in moves I taught him after the Olette fiasco…_, Axel thinks as he shuffles mindlessly within his pockets searching for the cards that aren't there.

8) Stutter

The glimpse of Roxas stuttering through a bunch of rapidly forgotten 'Hello' dialogues he catches is worth the increasingly powerful glares he gets from the dread-lock wearing guard.

9) Escape

And Axel admits that it's really thoughtful of the recently acquainted Naminé to come visit him and even draw on the sling he got after he finished exasperating the guard to buy the lovebirds time to escape.

10) Zombie

Roxas is looking mildly high on life now… yet, unlike before, it's a bit easier to snap down from the clouds – and really, proposing to invite Naminé to their usual spot should've been a no-brainer for him even way back to his zombie-fied pre-girlfriend days.

11) Veil

Axel still gets kicked to the couch after he just can't resist that sort of comments, veiled enough to only catch Roxas's attention.

12) Subdue

It lasted until night fell, and Roxas managed to subdue the rising hysteria via an increasingly loud rant to Axel… and the subsequent verbal panic over just what the small cell phone messages meant.

13) Humor

And damn being out of practice with this whole new-girlfriend sketch – last time, the lovey-dovey comments with the barest hints of humor had led the pair of them into hiding.

14) Success

Success meant his best friend got a date in one of those seemingly-cheap artsy cafés that litter downtown with those teensy insipid cups, and being able to return to his much more comfortable room.

15) Payment

"_No_ Roxas, I'm not lending you money for this – _your_ girl, _your_ issue."

"_But_-"

"And you haven't finished up the payments on those zillion sea-salt ice-creams yet."

16) Rest

The plan to sleep through the uneventful weekend gets _wrecked_ when Axel's phone beeps and vibrates every two seconds – or two hours, Axel doesn't care much for the remnants of naps.

17) Double

But being able to subtly taunt and pull the strings on the date is an entertaining past time – doubly so when it's two numbers volleying questions through to him.

18) Goofy

And please, someone remind Roxas that the goofy smile he is wearing right now can and will be used for future half-baked schemes – _after_ Axel stops laughing through the camera.

19) Fade

Or re-acquires the stash of blackmail material that Roxas also has – Axel is sure the blond hasn't let some of their less spectacular moments just fade off into nothing.

20) Incoming

Incoming rant about letting her crash at times in their pathetically girl-unfriendly dorm, in which Axel gives in after two days of complete dumb silence – it was far too similar to the dull without-best-friend phase he had.

21) Extract

Naminé deals with it well enough, after she managed to extract a promise from the pair of them to clean the place up without either of them knowing.

22) Movie

Axel doesn't mind the girl too much; until she accidentally leaves her sketch pad in their couch, open to a drawing of the three of them watching a (cheesy) movie as they had done the night before.

23) Appear

"Roxas!"

"What… trying to _imitate_ your _tendencies_ and just sleep…"

"I'm flattered, but I might just steal your girl if she thinks I'm as handsome as I appear in this here drawing of hers."

24) Miscommunication

Rage's color is _blue_ – after that single look from Roxas that made it clear he _didn't_ get the joke.

25) Console

It's versatile as well – when Naminé enters in tears due to some unknown reason which Axel doesn't particularly care about, Roxas managed to pull off that soft expression usually reserved to consoling his best friend after a particularly bad failure.

26) Jealous

Axel can't say he isn't jealous… until he realizes it was aimed at a guy, and Roxas will need someone to support his midget frame against… whoever it was.

27) Win

Let it be said that Axel is stupidly loyal to his friends and their closest ones – after getting another lesion on his arm and leaning on a cursing Roxas all the way to Naminé's apartment, the only thing they mentioned is how much they won that fight.

28) Hero

He isn't as hailed as a hero this time around, but having the two minuscule blondes curled up asleep against him is certainly a nice reward for Axel.

29) Message

Not to mention being able to scratch a couple of messages with a black sharpie as they lie oblivious to the world – but hey, half a heart on each their faces is a fairly kind thing to do, _right?_

30) Complete

No it isn't, according to Roxas, but Axel knows his best friend wouldn't really vent whatever out on him now – much less when A) Axel's wounded and B) Naminé just lays her cheek against his in front of a mirror just to complete the heart.

31) Graffiti

Axel is now regretting the overly sappy graffiti job he did, after he sees the happy couple walk hand-in-hand all day.

32) Stop

And not stopping, even when Axel has seen them walk away from his sight and his weekends.

33) Solo

If he thought that getting to test out his Axel-charm on the girls at his solo party, Axel got it wrong – doubly so when the target he happened to choose had a boyfriend _and_ a repentant ex in the Army.

34) Treason

And despite Roxas's treacherous actions previous, he is the first guy to visit Axel after one of his legs is wrapped up in a cast and take his best friend out for some ice-cream.

35) Scrap

Naminé is the second one – and he leaves the sunny terraces without a scrap of white left in the clinical bonds.

36) Accurate

Not that the sunset-themed décor is Axel's favorite, but she did capture the three of them in an _accurate_ manner.

37) Previous

Okay, the previous statement was a lie… Axel _does_ like the drawing, thanks very much.

38) Hip

It still doesn't mean Roxas and Axel are as joined at the hip as they were before… but _hey_, things like these happen.

39) Negligence

And when the holidays decide to roll in, the fact that Naminé invited them both over was a sort of compensation for the negligence that Axel had gone through.

40) Maniac

Not that Roxas stayed for an overly long time apart from Naminé… but maybe that was just due to Axel waving around mistletoe like the king of all maniacs.

41) Conclusion

It devolves into the only logical conclusion – Roxas chasing Axel around the place to make him stop his jokes, _please!_

42) Pom-pom

"You know you liked them."

"That's beside the point – what if-"

"If she didn't, do you _really_ think she would've let me wave these around like pom-poms?"

43) Guilt

Axel figured out that if Naminé didn't like something being done, she just smirked knowingly, and you would be guilty enough to, say, _not_ threaten them with the adequate chick flicks.

44) Book

Or even dissuade Roxas from eviscerating a short boy with unusual hair and a book who happened to be picking up Naminé's brother after he pressed a kiss to her cheek.

45) Inaudible

Not that it stopped Roxas from simply taking her away for an unexpectedly long while, only part of which Axel heard.

46) Climax

"Should I be cheering for you, my possibly grown-up best friend?"

The opening of the door had to be wonderfully anticlimactic for all of them.

47) Caught

And Axel is enough of a good friend to refrain from immortalizing with a photo the flustered, blushing faces of Roxas and Naminé.

48) Best

She does it herself – funnily enough, posted as '_Best Ever something something'_.

49) Commend

Axel has to commend her artistic skills – every single detail of Roxas's face got captured lovingly in the drawings, and not even Axel is left out.

50) Sink

In the end, as they watch the sun sink together on the usual terraces, it is Axel slinking some distance away – for his best friend's sake.

* * *

><p><em>A.N.<em> – you know about these extremely small drabble-ish challenges, you know, the ones where each prompt is written about for a sentence or two? This was supposed to be one of those… via a lot of luck in a random word generator (I should've bought a lottery ticket).

By the way, in case it isn't that obvious, I took a lot of liberties with Roxas and Naminé's relation… I have no idea if it sounds really realistic, but I liked how it turned out!

And also, nothing belongs to me – all of the characters belong to Square Enix, even when placed in this macro-AU. (If they were OoC, my deepest apologies). So, many thanks for reading and reviews are appreciated.

See you around!


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